About Campus Connections
Campus Connections was originally developed by colleagues at Colorado State University (CSU) who have generously collaborated with us to bring Campus Connections to UNC and serve youth in the Greeley and surrounding areas.
Campus Connections at UNC was implemented in Fall 2015.
Mission
Campus Connections aims to strengthen youth life skills, self-confidence, and productive engagement with the community. The goals of the program are to promote the resilience and life success of community youth as well as strengthen community systems in order to better serve youth and their families. Additionally, the mentorship program strives to prepare UNC students to become community-engaged leaders.
Student mentors spend four hours once a week with their mentee in a group setting to provide academic support, career planning, positive social skill development, and to develop goals while providing an environment conducive to goal attainment. Strong bonds between mentors and mentees develop over the course of the program. Advanced graduate students and experienced clinical supervisors provide support and guidance to the mentors during Campus Connections to form a collaborative approach and supportive environment for working with youth.
UNC’s Campus Connections is housed in the Department of Applied Psychology and Counselor Education (APCE). This same department houses the Psychological Services Clinic (PSC). The PSC provides counseling and assessment services to the Greeley and surrounding communities. Youth involved in Campus Connections and their families will have access to services through the PSC, including individual counseling, family counseling, couples counseling, play therapy, and assessment services.
Contact Us
McKee Hall Room 307
University of Northern Colorado
Directions
Phone:
970-351-1635
Fax: 970-351-2625
Philosophy
Through partnerships between the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) and stakeholders in the Weld County community, Campus Connections provides therapeutic mentoring to youth ages 11-18 years, in a structured multi-level mentoring community. Youth who are at risk of not reaching their full potential due to individual or environmental risk factors are referred to Campus Connections and matched with a UNC student mentor. UNC graduate and undergraduate students provide one-on-one mentorship to youth.
The Campus Connections program takes place entirely on UNC’s campus, providing exposure to campus and university life, thus allowing for youth to experience firsthand the possibilities of education and the value of learning. Working collaboratively, university faculty and doctoral-level students coordinate and supervise the experiential mentorship evening while providing comprehensive group learning and instruction to compliment the mentorship experience and needs of the youth.
Campus Connections creates an environment in which each mentorship pairing is nested within a small mentoring group, known as a Mentor Family. The Mentor Family is typically comprised of youth in similar developmental and chronological ages. This unique feature of Campus Connections allows youth to positively interact with their peers while benefiting from their primary mentor and a community of caring peers within their Mentor Family.
